Telephonic apparatus



(No Model.)

J. W. SEE.

TELEPHONIO APPARATUS.

No. 350,160. Patented Oct. 5. 1886.

L A 0 Al BUTTON Q Witnesses: Z Inventor; W 1g; b i/ JAnns w. sun, or rnmrnrron, Olll'O.

TELEPHONIC APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 350,160, dated October 5, 1886.

Application filed September 2'2, 1834. Serial No. 143,012. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES XV. SEE, of Hanr ilton, Butler county, Ohio, have invented cer tain new and useful Improvements in Telephonic Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

Open-circuit batteries are largely used with telephonic transmitters. The batteries lose their power by reason of regular use in telephonic operations, and also by reason of being accidentally shortcircuited by derangement of the automatic switch employet'l. to keep the battery-circuitopen when the transmitter is not in use.

Telephoneexchange managers seek to keep their batteries up to full strength by two different plans. By one plan periodical visits are made to the subscribers premises and the batteries recharged. By the other plan the batteries are allowed to weaken until the subscribers complain. Periodical visits are expensive. They often result in overcharging the batteries and soiling the premises, and they will. not at all meet cases of accidental shorteircuiting. Depending on complaints from subscribers is a failure, for the simple reason that the subscriber always finds fault with the talker at the other end of the line, knowing nothing of his own weakness as to transmitting power. As he hears a weak talker to-day and a strong one to-morrow, he can form no idea as to whether things are generally weak or not. Hence the weakening of batteries constitutes one of the gravest sources of exchange trouble to the telephone service of to-day.

The object of myinvcntion is to provide an apparatus by which the subscriber becomes, innocently, the means of daily applying to his transmitter-battery an unfailing test as to its strength.

The invention will be understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 represents a suite of offices representing a subscribers station, and Fig. 2 a diagram illustrating the circuits, both of the figures exemplifying my present invention.

In the drawings, A represents the inner office of a suite belonging to a telephonic subscriber; B, the front office of the suite, which front office we will assume to be in charge of a subordinate-say a clerk or type-w riteroperatorwho is subject at all times to the call of his chief; C, an intermediate office of the suite; D, the usual subscribcrs telephone apparatus, shown as located in the intermediate ofiice, though, as will be hereinafter understood, it is immaterial to the present invention upon what part of the premises it is located; E, a push-button or other eircuit-closer placed upon the chiefs desk or elsewhere within his reach; F, an elec tric bell located in the front office, or it may be elsewhere within heari ng ot'the subordinate; (It, a wire from the electric bell F, which bell I will herein term the test-bell, to the push button E; H, a wire from the test-bell to the push-button, and passing through the trans mitterbattery.

The relation ofpartswill be fully understood from the diagram .in which will be found delineated the ordi nary circuits of the telephonic station apparatus.

The transmitter-battery is connected up for its usual service in the usual manner. The wires Hand (1 form an open circuit, including the test-bell, the transmitter-battery, and the push-button. The test-bell may be a singlestroke bell, a vibratonbell, or a buzzer. The resistance of the tcst-bell should be such that the test-bell will not operate in case the battery is too weak for use as a trans1nitterbattery. If the push-button be pressed, the testbell will ring, provided the battery has suliicient strength.

The testbell may be used as an ordinary office call-bell, by which the chief calls his subordinate to him, and the apparatus can be applied to store-rooms, warehouses, and, in fact. anypremises where one party is subject to the call of another some short distant-e away. Codes of signals maybe arranged by which different parties may be called, and a multiplicity of push-buttons and bells may be placed in circuit, if desired, for the purpose of enabling a called party to respond The use of the battery in ringing the test-bell does not interfere with its simultaneous use as a trans nutter-battery, and its use does not, to any great extent, detract from its durability as such. This test apparatus being placed upon the subscribers premises, say,

creased periodical charge to the subscriber,

at slight in-.

provides him with very efficient office-call facilities-facilities which he will not fail to avail himself of. In the daily use of the bell the subscriber will become aware of any serious weakening of his transmitter-battery. Should his transmitter-battery become seriously weakened, he will become at once aware of the fact, and will be led to complain to the powers that be, not that his transmitter-battery is weak, but that he is being deprived of one of his oflice conveniences. By properly adjusting the resistance of the test-bell this complaint of the weakening of the battery is liable to occur some time before the battery becomes too weak for transmitter purposes.

I do not broadly claim a battery connected.

up so as to be used for either a signaling-battery or a transmitter-battery, as I am aware that a transmitter-battery at a telephonic'station has been arranged to be switched onto the main line for signaling purposes when the line is switched ofi of the telephonic circuit.

I claim as my invention- A line-circuit including a telephonetransmitter, a local circuit including a test-bell and a circuit-closer, and a battery independently connected unto each of said circuits, combined substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

JAMES W. SEE.

WVitnesses:

W. A. SEWARD, C, D. MATHES. 

